What's a psych residency schedule like?

[gunsandroses]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hi,

I'm a 3rd year planning on psych and wondering how schedules tend to go. I'm a single mom so I think about these things a lot. I understand call is often less than other fields but I'm wondering about hours per week, start and stop time each day, evenings/weekends, and flexibility issues. As a mom, I tend to want to work the hours other people don't, so I'm wondering if shifts are traded and etc. etc.

I know each and every program is different but I'm looking for some trends here.

thanks ever so much

 

[BobA]

Hi,

I'm a 3rd year planning on psych and wondering how schedules tend to go. I'm a single mom so I think about these things a lot. I understand call is often less than other fields but I'm wondering about hours per week, start and stop time each day, evenings/weekends, and flexibility issues. As a mom, I tend to want to work the hours other people don't, so I'm wondering if shifts are traded and etc. etc.

I know each and every program is different but I'm looking for some trends here.

thanks ever so much

There aren't any general trends, but there are endless variations and so you can probably find what you're looking for.

 

[peppy]

Each program is different. There are a few programs that don't have any overnight call at all. Some programs have short call and/or night float. Others have a standard overnight call system - although even in that case, most of the time the frequency of the call is less than it is for Internal Medicine, Surgery, OB/Gyn, etc.

The most common arrangement, at least going by the places where I interviewed: On non-call days you usually work from 8am to 5 or 6 pm, then overnight call is q5-6 days during first year. Call becomes much less frequent in the following years (a lot of places do not have any call at all during 3rd and 4th year). Some places want you to come in to round on the weekend too, but others do not.

The best thing you can do is try to identify the programs you are most interested in, then investigate their schedules individually either on the program's website or on this messageboard. I've heard that the working hours info on the FREIDA site is quite often inaccurate, so don't go by that.
From my own interviewing experiences, I can say that I was very impressed with how family-friendly and accomodating the psych program at the University of Michigan seems to be.